Emmy-winning series White Lotus is a tanned take on the detective detective genre, creating intense tension that keeps viewers guessing for six episodes. The series picks up where it ends, and we immediately learn that someone has been murdered on the luxurious resort island. As time rolls back to the previous week, viewers believe again and again that another character will end up in a wooden box of human remains being loaded onto a plane. In a seemingly peaceful setting, the soundtrack’s tribal heartbeat intensifies and tension builds in anticipation that something will go wrong.

If you were surprised by the series’ final climax and believed someone else would end up in that box, we’re all in the same boat. Ahead of Season 2’s premiere next month, we’ll take a closer look at each red herring in White Lotus Season 1, which took viewers down a winding, dead-end path.

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“Where is your wife?”

The only person we know for sure is not in the box is Shane PattonJake Lacy). In the opening scene, Shane is asked where his wife is and he replies to strangers, “No offense, leave me alone.” He then looks out the window to watch the body being loaded on board. Immediately we are led to believe that his wife Rachel (Alexandra Daddario), one who dies.

“Are they bigger?”

When you check in at the Nicole resort (Connie Britton) and Mark Mossbacher (Steve Zahn) discuss the likelihood that the latter has testicular cancer. Mark is annoyed and distant while waiting for test results and talking to his son Quinn (Fred Hechinger) about memories of him in a positive way. His wife is the only person in the family who knows about his problems and tries to keep him positive. Luckily, they learn that the test came back negative, and Mr. Mossbacher’s cancer, which led to his death at the resort, is out of the equation.

“If he had died, I think we would have heard.”

On her first day at work, employee trainee Lani (Jolene Purdy) labor begins prematurely; a terrifying situation that causes her severe physical pain. Lani screaming and writhing while waiting for her doctors while working for resort manager Armond (Murray Bartlett) office. In the next episode, we learn that Lani went through an unexpected birth, as did the baby, which Armond later revealed to spa manager Belinda (Natasha Rothwell), “If he had died, I think we would have heard.”

“Hawaiian K-Hole?”

Returning to the Mossbacher apartments, daughter Olivia (Sydney Sweeney) and her friend Paula (Brittany O’Grady) decide they’re bored and dig through their big drug stash. When Olivia’s father sees the weed and pills, he jokingly asks if they’re opening a Mexican pharmacy, but the girls brush it off, claiming it’s Paula’s prescriptions. The couple stay up all night, smoke weed and “make lesbian noises,” as their younger brother Quinn eloquently put it. The next day at the beach, the couple take ketamine on sun loungers and seem to have a very intense experience. When their journey is interrupted by a distraught Tanya McQuoid (Jennifer Coolidge), the girls get up and leave, leaving their drug bag on the beach. Since they no longer have a collection of pills, powders and herbs, the possibility of overdosing on one of them no longer exists.

“I was on this… canoe.”

Quinn, apparently inexperienced with nature, wakes up on a beach and sees whales in the distance. Mesmerized by their beauty and majesty, the thought of him trying to swim and sink comes to our minds as the second episode ends. Quinn later joins the rowing team on a canoe excursion after they invite an inexperienced outdoor enthusiast to join him due to the extra weight. Onlookers began to fear that the frustrated young man, treated awkwardly if not badly by his family, might not return from the tour. Quinn was last seen leaving his family at the airport - not in a box, but on foot with a backpack in hand, determined to stay on the island and join his new friends on the water.

“I have tequila… I have other things.”

Smartly dressed and always attentive, the hotel manager Armond puts Paula’s lost bag on his desk and realizes that there is a storehouse of drugs inside. He previously talked about his addiction issues and eventually breaking that sobriety, now there is a possibility of him overdosing, especially since his drug use is increasing significantly over time.

“I’ll be fine.”

After Mark learns the truth about his late father’s lifestyle, he starts drinking heavily before a scuba diving lesson. His son reminds him that they should be in the water later that day, to which Mark replies that he will be fine, drinking another Bloody Mary. At the moment, there is a chance that Mark will drown before he gets out of the pool.

“Love is alive, but the Spark… She’s dead.”

Mark, still heavily drunk, strikes up a conversation with Rachel Patton at one of the resort’s restaurants. Mark, frustrated and unsatisfied with his sex life, and Rachel, angry at Mark’s wife and her own husband, have an intimate conversation, and the possibility of their tropical fling floats throughout the scene. Given Mr. Patton’s short temper, it’s likely that this case will result in him attacking and possibly killing Mark or Rachel. Alas, Rachel becomes uncomfortable with the sexual nature of the conversation and leaves the restaurant.

“Where have you been?”

Olivia notices that Paula is looking at Kai (Kekoa Scott Kekumano), a waiter at the resort. After Olivia later catches her sleeping with a resort employee, tensions rise between the two friends. The dynamics of the young ladies are strange, seeming to be a mixture of hatred, friendship and perhaps something more. Olivia’s jealous and seemingly always uptight personality makes you wonder if she’s hiding a dark secret and if she’s capable of killing her friend or the person she caught her sleeping with.

“Sorry, those are cigars.”

Tanya McQuoid meets the rude and eloquent gentleman Greg (John Grice), who invites her to dinner that evening, and the revived Tanya agrees. The audience quickly noticed Greg’s constant cough. He initially states that it is the result of smoking cigars with his work buddies, but later informs Tanya that he has health problems and states that she shouldn’t be surprised if he suddenly drops dead. They then plan to travel together to Honolulu, the same location where the plane with the bodies is heading.

“I can give you something. Well… I can help you take it.”

Paula is unhappy with the Hawaiian land colonization and offers to help her new beau Kai, who needs to hire an expensive lawyer to get his land back. Paula tells him the code to the Mossbacher family safe, as well as the time the room should be empty. When Mark and Nicole get into an argument and end up not going on a chartered boat trip, they enter their room after being robbed. Kai throws Nicole to the ground and then fights Mark. When they exchange blows to the head, it signals any possibility that one of them may die in the encounter.

“This is the knife we ​​were given to cut the pineapples.”

News of the robbery quickly spreads throughout the resort. When the Pattons find out about the thief, Shane states that he wishes he had a gun. He then goes to a plate of fruit in another room and pulls out a large pineapple knife. Things then escalate between the newlyweds, with Rachel stating that she made a mistake in marrying him, calling him a male baby, and getting her own room at the resort. The Baby Man was shown to have a short temper, and after not getting the Pineapple Lux, he became increasingly erratic. The two argue with a knife next to them, though Shane does not point the blade at his remorseful wife.

“You are an amazing person.”

Tanya tells Belinda that she has changed her mind about funding the start-up business, stating that she is trying to break the habit of using her money to control people. Belinda, who revived hopes in a week, is too kind to kill Tanya, but what happens on the island stays on the island.

“They exploit me, I exploit you. Smash and burn.”

Armond, having learned of his impending firing due to Shane’s incessant crying, starts a riot in his office with a handful of shirtless messengers and the latest drugs. In an increasingly precarious high state, Armond gets a wild look, as if he had the meanest of ideas. Without a word, he quickly makes his way to the Pattons’ room with the grace of a man with a drug-fuelled plan. Will he kill Shane for getting fired? Well, what he did was pretty horrific, and the way his escape ended was somewhere between shocking and expected. As a sense of calm returns to the island’s beaches, the surviving characters are completely unaware of how close they have come to death.